At an unusual media conference given jointly by Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom and leading Zionist Rabbis Zalman Melamed and Chaim Druckman, the call was issued: “Come settle the Negev and Galilee.”
Shalom, who is the Minister for the Development of the Negev and Galilee, presented his plan to settle 300,000 Israelis in the Negev, and a similar amount in the Galilee, in the coming years. He was flanked by Rabbi Druckman, head of the Yeshivot Bnei Akiva movement, and Rabbi Melamed, Dean of Yeshivat Beit El and co-chairman of the Yesha Rabbis Organization.
INN-TV video by Yoni Kempinsky
“The settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria was a successful one,” Shalom said, “and we should learn from it to do the same in the Negev and Galilee. Here with me today are two leaders of the religious-Zionist public, and I hope and believe that their followers will act in accordance with their call to settle in these areas.”
Shalom and the rabbis made it clear that the call to settle the Negev and Galilee "is not at the expense of Judea and Samaria, but as a supplement."
Rabbi Druckman said, "In the prayers that we are about to recite on the High Holidays, we ask G-d to grant simcha l'artzecha, joy to the Holy Land. What could be more joyous to the Land than having its sons return home and build it up? Let this call echo throughout the country and world!"
"The commandment of settling the Land applies equally to all areas of the Land," Rabbi Melamed said. "There must be a Jewish majority in every part. The State of Israel must truly be a Jewish state all over, as it was established to be. This is what gives it its right to exist. Thank G-d, the religious-Zionist public continues the early pioneering spirit by settling the Land, and we must continue this all over."